A gun buy-back program designed to stem violent crime in St. Louis has started with a bang. More than 1,000 guns were turned in at police stations since the program began Monday morning, police spokeswoman Christine Nelson said. Under the program, people can turn in guns--no questions asked--and receive vouchers worth $50 in cash and $10 in groceries. One man turned in 100 guns, Nelson said.

Under the command of an unflappable engineer in khakis and a hard hat, workers drilled holes, dumped limestone and pumped cement Thursday to finish plugging a leak under the St. Louis flood wall as a record-high crest barreled down the Missouri River. The crest, approaching from the west, was expected to collide with floodwater from the Mississippi River sometime Tuesday just north of St. Louis.

Warmer weather and a bigger stadium are luring the National Football League's Cardinals to Arizona after 28 years in St. Louis. Team owner William Bidwill said Friday he wants to move the Cardinals to Phoenix before next season because "we can be more competitive there" in the future.

The U.S. Olympic Committee's executive committee has awarded U.S. Olympic Festivals to San Antonio in 1993, St. Louis in 1994 and Denver in 1995. The executive committee, meeting in Dallas Friday, voted after receiving recommendations from the USOC's Olympic Festivals Committee, which heard presentations from five candidates Thursday. Other groups bidding represented South Florida and the state of Maryland. The 1991 festival will be held in Los Angeles July 12-21.

In an era when two-newspaper towns are mostly a memory, Ingersoll Publications said Tuesday that it intends to start a new daily newspaper in St. Louis in September to compete with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ingersoll, a privately owned company that has grown mostly by buying small-town papers with high-yield "junk bond" financing from Drexel Burnham Lambert, said the proposed tabloid will publish morning editions seven days a week. Ingersoll said the paper, to be called the St.

Pope John Paul II won't come within 2,000 miles of Los Angeles on his upcoming trip to North America, but that hasn't stopped a majority of Southland television stations from treating the visit as a local story. As a result, seven of the city's 10 news teams are sending reporters to either Mexico or St. Louis to cover the six-day papal tour. Spanish-language outlet KVEA-TV is taking the most aggressive approach, sending a crew of seven including news anchor Jose A.

Nine months ago, the school board hired a corporate turnaround firm to run the troubled public education system here. The consultants will return to New York in June, their $4.7-million contract up. They will leave behind a school district in chaos -- and a city enraged. Applying business models developed to save casinos and clothing chains from bankruptcy, the outsiders slashed the district's expenses by 15%.

At least 1,384 illegal votes tainted November's election here, including ballots cast by felons, unregistered voters or impostors using the names of dead citizens, according to a blistering report released this week by Missouri's secretary of state. The illegal votes were not enough to sway the result of any single contest.

Ike Turner will have the stage, but not the day, when he performs in St. Louis in September. Mayor Francis Slay has turned down a request to make Sept. 2 "Ike Turner Day." The 75-year-old singer is scheduled to perform that day at the Big Muddy Blues Festival. Cathy Smentkowski, an aide to Slay, said that when the request "was brought to the mayor's attention, he did not feel comfortable issuing it." She declined to elaborate.

A taxi driver was shot and killed, becoming the second cabdriver slain in St. Louis this month, police said. The shooting happened just before 2 a.m., authorities said. The taxi driver was found dead at the wheel on the city's north side; his cab had run over a fence and into a porch.